Ken Fields, MA, NCC, LMHC

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Professional online counseling offers 4 distinct platforms upon which to engage in therapeutic dialogue: Email, telephone, live-chat or instant messaging, and webcam video conferencing. Each of these has advantages, and disadvantages. Email requires you to write out a little background and the issues you want to present, and then sending that email to the counselor. The counselor then reads your email, and replies, generally within two days. Though a bit slower and time consuming, it is also more thoughtful requiring the writing out of your thoughts. You also have the advantage of reading, re-reading and pondering the in-depth response from the counselor.

Live-chat is instant messaging -- a real time written therapeutic dialogue between you and the counselor. The advantage of this medium is the immediacy of the exchange. If you are a good typist and comfortable with the keyboard, you may find this approach quite satisfying. The disadvantage is, like email, the lack of any vocal or visual cues and clues. A great deal of counseling and therapy is not just the words, but the vocal intonations and 'body language' that goes along with the words. Nevertheless, in terms of a therapeutic dialogue, both email and live-chat can be quite effective.

Telephone counseling offers the immediacy of live-chat, along with the vocal element.. If you are not that fluent on a keyboard, don't much like to read on a computer screen, and/or prefer a voice, while maintaining the anonymity of email and livechat, then telephone counseling may be more for you. Telephone counseling has been around much longer than the Internet and has proven to be a very successful medium for most issues brought up in counseling and therapy.

Video conferencing via webcam is the least anonymous and most revealing. It not only provides the vocal element of talking but also the visual element of seeing each other. Your computer must have the required microphone and webcam, as well as software that allows for webcam communication, such as Skype.

If you are considering online counseling through any of the above channels, you can begin with the Quick Access Telephone Counseling link on the Home page of this site; or, you can go to the payment page and purchase any number of sessions through the various platforms available.  The rates for online and telephone counseling services can be found on the rates page.

If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact Ken Fields at:

counselor@openmindcounseling.com

When you are ready to begin online counseling, please visit this page to get you started.